• If you were lucky, you had a dish, and you’d watch Disney Hour dubbed in Hindi on Zee TV and write to the host Vishaal. And you never missed "Hum Paanch" (Pa-Pa-Pa-PAANCH!) or Tu Tu Mein Mein either.

• You played “Kings” in school (the game where the first person to yell “Kings” would try to step on someone’s foot. Then that person would try to step on someone else’s foot and so forth).

• Playground feminism took form in the shape of “Queens” (essentially the same thing as “Kings”) and “Kish,” that weird jumping game that involved two teams and a loop of elastic (usually made out of a few shalwars’ worth of elastic tied together, snuck secretly because the mums would get sick of their daughters wasting a perfectly good roll of elastic.)

• Guys only ever played cricket and football, depending on what world cup was going on at the time.

• The only co-ed sport that was ever played was dodgeball (called Dodge the Ball) and girls were actually pretty good at it.

• You drank Frost juice with Super Crisp chips. And then when you were done, you’d chuck the juice box on the floor and jump on it to burst it.

• "Idiot," "Shut Up" or "Badtameez" was your first cuss word.

• There was never a line at the canteen. Instead everyone drove the canteen wala mad by screaming at the top of their lungs.

• You were cool if you could finish a whole pack of Crunchies or Slanties without showing any signs of weakness, including drinking water afterwards.

• You picked out only the chips from your mum’s Nimco.

• You remember RC Cola and how no one liked it.

• It was taboo for guys to drink Mirinda/Fanta because it was a GIRL’s drink.

• You idolized Imran Khan even though he was retired when you were 2 or 3, and wiped your face with your Pepsi bottle or Frost juice because he did it in that ad.

• Wasim Akram's "mein cigarette nahi peeta" ad made half ur generation vow to never smoke (the other half just missed out on good stuff).

• You had to ask “Ma’am/Miss may I come in” before entering a class, and you had to stand up to answer questions during a lesson.

• Cordless phones were the coolest things.

• You went crazy when your dad bought his first ever mobile, and you wouldn’t shut up about it to your friends.

• You carried around a cordless phone in your bag/pocket pretending it was a mobile phone, because heck, they both looked the same back then didn’t they?

• You begged your parents for a walkman and then bought tapes of Junaid Jamshed, or if you were really cool, Junoon.

• You went to a Junaid Jamshed concert in a PAF building or a Junoon concert in PC.

• You remember Fakhr-e-Alam hosting the Top Ten on NTM and his “Bhangra Rap” was always #1.• #2 was “Jaadoo Ka Charagh” by Awaz and #3 was “Dohlna” by Shehzad Roy.. #4 was “Mann de Moaj” by Hadiqa Kayani, the only cool female-singer in Pakistani (and that was her only song for a long time, till she sang Dupatta Mera Malmal Ka.”)

• You were really sad when Awaz split up. And later you took sides between Haroon and Fakhir, and if you liked one you had to hate the other.

• You remember waking up early in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays (back when they weren’t weekends) before school to watch English cartoons on Star Plus (before it got taken over by the Indians).

• You still hold a grudge against the Indianization of Star Plus after all those years.

• You remember celebrating when they changed the weekends to Saturday and Sunday because it meant Friday was a half-day.

• You remember crying because of it if you were older, since the schools would make you come on Saturday for a full day anyway.

• You played Sega-Mega Drive, Atari and Super Nintendo.

• You played Mario Brothers like there was no tomorrow.

• You remember the Nintendo game where you had to shoot ducks with an actual gun-shaped joystick and thought it was the most amazing thing ever.

• Your life was never the same again when your first Windows 95 was set up in your house.

• You played Dave 1 and thought level three was the hardest thing in the world. Then you upgraded to Lion King (probably from a Power Games CD bought out in the street).

• You shafted Polka Ice Cream when Walls became popular. And yes, admit it, you used to wait for the Ice Cream wala in the afternoon and bought Paddle Pops from him.

• Walls wasn't as good as the Challi Walla (end there were rumors that people loved them so much because there was chars in the masala).

• The boys watched Captain Majid (some daring girls did too) and the girls watched Jem (so did some guys, for that matter, and hid their interest under the pretext of making fun of their sisters).

• Cartoon Network showed good stuff like Johnny Bravo and Johnny Quest before crap like Cow and Chicken ruined everything.

• You had "kutti" (pinkie finger) with your enemies and "sulli" (index+middle finger) with your friends.

• Our idols were either the guys from Alpha Bravo Charlie or the guys from Teen Bata Teen.

• It's "copy," "rubber," and "dustbin." Or rather, "duss-bin." And "desk" was once "dex."

• Your childhood was over when they made you stop using pencils and start using fountain pens. And you always made a mess filling the ink.

• You watched Small Wonder, even after it was dubbed in Hindi by Star Plus.

• You wanted to be on the Crystal Maze, The Legends of the Hidden Temple and such game shows.

32 comments:

You played Dark Room, Tilo-Express, Oonch Neech, Chor-Sipahi and Chupan Chupai.uff ye bohat khelt thay...isn't Tilo-Express the same as Chupan Chupai? :Si hated In Pin Safety Pin and O Pillar!!!!!!!! they just irritated me! i don't know why i was kind of an outcast in the girls games...couldn't ever relate to stupid round round circles...kish was the only girlie game i played...:)

teelo express is hide n seek with a little variation: the hider says "express" if he is spotted, and the seekers calls out "teelo" is he finds the hider..whoever calls out first wins..the point is to call out first so that you can get to hide..why am i explaining this game :Di disliked kishlolz@stupidroundroundcircles...it was called "Country Country"

i wasn't talking about Country Country although it was also a pretty silly game...by stupid round round circles i meant those games in which 2 girls hold hands and the rest have to go under the arch...the 2 girls holding the hands are singing something weird and when they end whoever's in the arch has to do something...how come all girlie games involve holding hands and going around in circles and weird songs... :S:S:S:S

:D, got it :) but can't recal the name of the game...i liked country country...don't know if u guys/gals used to play "whats the time mr wolf" and the eggs walee game :)whats zig zag zoo? name seems familiarxunaira, yaad hai--tug of war with sash :D and we rocked at net ball ;)

• Evenings on STN/NTM were the highlight of your day.[Bionic Six, Camp Candy, Flash and the Lost World]• The Jetsons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Captain Planet were dubbed in Urdu.[I thought only TMNT were dubbed]• If you were lucky, you had a dish, and you’d watch Disney Hour dubbed in Hindi on Zee TV.[Those funny cartoons!]X• You played “Kings” in school (the game where the first person to yell “Kings” would try to step on someone’s foot. Then that person would try to step on someone else’s foot and so forth).• Playground feminism took form in the shape of “Queens” (essentially the same thing as “Kings”) and “Kish,” that weird jumping game that involved two teams and a loop of elastic (usually made out of a few shalwars’ worth of elastic tied together, snuck secretly because the mums would get sick of their daughters wasting a perfectly good roll of elastic.)[I used to watch girls play kish and always wanted to play too but couldn't because none of the boys would play it because of its girlie nature. For me it was a superior sport because of the the skill involved rather than brute force]• Guys only ever played cricket and football, depending on what world cup was going on at the time.• The only co-ed sport that was ever played was dodgeball (called Dodge the Ball) and girls were actually pretty good at it.[Played with girls once and it ended in a fight]• You played Dark Room, Tilo-Express, Oonch Neech, Chor-Sipahi and Chupan Chupai.[There was a variation of Chor-Sipahi called safe-safe. Had the most fun playing it.]• You decided conflicts not by rock-paper-scissors, but by Pugan-Pugaai, In Pin Safety Pin, or Akar-Bakar-Bambay-Bo.[I was pretty good at pugan-pugai. Rarely lost]• 5 words: Assoo-Panjoo-Haar-Kabootar-Doli.• Anyone owning a real Barbie or Hot Wheels was a source of envy and admiration.[I had LEGO. A whole roomfull!]• “Bil Patori naasa chori aadhi mithi aadhi kori I’m sorry I’m sorry” means something to you. As do “ZAAAAAYYYMEEENAAAA!!!” and “Mein kon hoon, mein kya karoon, mein kiss ko khaaon” and “Ulloo ulloo hello, ulloo ulloo hello.”[Definitely ring a few bells :)]• You wished you were Imran or Moattar from Ainak Waala Jin.[Wished to be Veeler from Captain Planet]• You had nightmares about Bil Patori and Haamoon Jadoogar.[Yep!]• You drank Frost juice with Super Crisp chips. And then when you were done, you’d chuck the juice box on the floor and jump on it to burst it.[I still do it when nobody's looking :p. Really miss Frost]• "Idiot," "Shut Up" or "Badtameez" was your first cuss word.[And also 'Stupid!' and 'Pagal']• There was never a line at the canteen. Instead everyone drove the canteen wala mad by screaming at the top of their lungs.[I ALWAYS wished there would be prefects at the canteen maintaining order because I was never a strong fellow and would think twice or thrice before even going to the canteen.]X• You were cool if you could finish a whole pack of Crunchies or Slanties without showing any signs of weakness, including drinking water afterwards.• You picked out only the chips from your mum’s Nimco.[Still do it :)]• You remember RC Cola and how no one liked it.[Because it was Fake ofcourse :)]• It was taboo for guys to drink Mirinda/Fanta because it was a GIRL’s drink.[I always liked mirinda/fanta, though]• You idolized Imran Khan even though he was retired when you were 2 or 3, and wiped your face with your Pepsi bottle or Frost juice because he did it in that ad.[Used to do that before drinking a glass of cold water in summers :)]• Wasim Akram's "mein cigarette nahi peeta" ad made half ur generation vow to never smoke (the other half just missed out on good stuff).• You had to ask “Ma’am/Miss may I come in” before entering a class, and you had to stand up to answer questions during a lesson.[And when teacher entered everybody would sing Asslaaamolaeeekum Maedum. That changed to 'Good morning/afternoon Madam' in 5th class.]X• Cordless phones were the coolest things.X• You carried around a cordless phone in your bag/pocket pretending it was a mobile phone, because heck, they both looked the same back then didn’t they?[Not exactly phones but did that with a few other gadgets]• You went to a Junaid Jamshed concert in a PAF building or a Junoon concert in PC.[It was on some Army Unit's Reunion in Abbottabad]• You remember waking up early in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays (back when they weren’t weekends) before school to watch English cartoons on Star Plus (before it got taken over by the Indians).[GIJoes, Force Five and Robotech used to by my favourites. Count Duckula was funny. On a particular Saturday when I was sitting in anticipation for a 2.5 hour Force5 marathon lights when out just 5 minutes before the show. The power went out for whole 2 days (because of overnight snowing) ruining any chance of watching these cartoons. I vividly remember that because it was so sad on missing out those cartoons]+ Here's a torrent link for Robotech:http://www.isohunt.com/download/8589006/robotech• You still hold a grudge against the Indianization of Star Plus after all those years.[ABSOLUTELY!!!]• You remember celebrating when they changed the weekends to Saturday and Sunday because it meant Friday was a half-day.• You remember crying because of it if you were older, since the schools would make you come on Saturday for a full day anyway.• You played Sega-Mega Drive, Atari and Super Nintendo.[Always wanted a console but never got one]• You played Mario Brothers like there was no tomorrow.[A few other Mario look-alikes on my Dad's good old 386]• You remember the Nintendo game where you had to shoot ducks with an actual gun-shaped joystick and thought it was the most amazing thing ever.[Had a joystick with PC. Autofire option was the coolest]• Your life was never the same again when your first Windows 95 was set up in your house.[I had a hard time accepting Win95 because it took over Dos]• You played Dave 1 and thought level three was the hardest thing in the world. Then you upgraded to Lion King (probably from a Power Games CD bought out in the street).[Completed Dave 1 but Lion King was too hard for me. Both came from Power games CD :)]• You shafted Polka Ice Cream when Walls became popular. And yes, admit it, you used to wait for the Ice Cream wala in the afternoon and bought Paddle Pops from him.[I think that 1 rupee ice-lolly was better. The one that was sold outside your school at 'chutti time']• Walls wasn't as good as the Challi Walla (end there were rumors that people loved them so much because there was chars in the masala).[True]X• The boys watched Captain Majid (some daring girls did too) and the girls watched Jem (so did some guys, for that matter, and hid their interest under the pretext of making fun of their sisters).• Cartoon Network showed good stuff like Johnny Bravo and Johnny Quest before crap like Cow and Chicken ruined everything.[Like Centurions, Sky Commanders, Swat Kats, All the xxxman cartoons like Birdman etc, Classic Johnny Quest and the Johnny Quest Movies. I thought Johnny Bravo and Cow and Chicken are in the same category.]• You had "kutti" (pinkie finger) with your enemies and "sulli" (index+middle finger) with your friends.[Before class 2 :p]• Our idols were either the guys from Alpha Bravo Charlie or the guys from Teen Bata Teen.[Teachers... teachers were absolutely the best human beings on the planet. You would fight your parents if they'd say teacher isn't right]• It's "copy," "rubber," and "dustbin." Or rather, "duss-bin." And "desk" was once "dex."• Your childhood was over when they made you stop using pencils and start using fountain pens. And you always made a mess filling the ink.[I made a vow in class 4 not to use pens in class 5. Told me brother nobody's gonna make me abandon my pencils. Don't ask what happened to that vow.]• You watched Small Wonder, even after it was dubbed in Hindi by Star Plus.[English version was so much cooler]• You wanted to be on the Crystal Maze, The Legends of the Hidden Temple and such game shows.[Crystal Maze was fun. Never missed it]• The coolest clapping games were "Cham Cham Cham," "O Pillar," "Zig Zag Zoo."[Didn't like clapping games]• You were on the top of the food chain if you were made monitor (and you very easily abused the power too, by chucking chalk and dusters at people).[And writing names of people, making noise, on the blackboard while the teachers change during classes]• Sit/Stand, Murghi, and sitting in the bad-kid section was the usual punishment. And the good girls would sit with the bad boys in a vain attempt to civilize them.[Oh! you got that all wrong. Boys were made to sit with girls. Sitting with girls was absolutely the most horrid thing to happen to ANY boy. Definitely the most feared punishment. Another punishment was 5 sticks on your hand with the strongest scale in your class.]

-:):):)ethereal,the only dude on campus who used a fountain pen..never saw u use a picasso or paino pens..would like to know the story behind it :)i loved crystal maze too..used to play it at home :)you can play kish with your daughter :)InshahAllah-teeba, i used to love home gardern river sea ocean..still do :D...-the janjua kids used to play hide n seek in super style..raat kay waqt..with all lights off in the neighbourhood..we(cousins) would divide in teams of two, each team would have a pair of walkie talkie..o boy...it used to be thrilling..and haha...we would lock shinto(my lil bro's fat cat) inside the house because shinto would find us :D otherwise and start meowing making it easy for the seeking team.-Alhamdulilah, all of us have had a marvellous childhood, similar in many ways.-am i missing any show:fullhouse,funhouse,my secret identity, automan, the manimal,the girl from tomorrow,the wizard,small wonder, thunder cats,ninja turtles, the smurfs,hmmthey ruined it by dubbing in urdu

Before the Internet, VCD and DVD. Before semi-automatics machine guns, joyriders and crack ….Before SEGA or Super Nintendo or Video Games…Way back….I’m talking about Hide and seek (Chhupan Chhupaee) in the park or on streets. The corner shop, Butter Scotch Candy,Mitchells Milk Toffee, Jubilee, football with an old can, jumping in enormous puddles, Building dams.The smell of the sun and fresh cut grass.Mayfair bubble gum. “Nice” sugar coated biscuitsA POLKA ice cream pop cone on a warm summer night,The 2 and 3 rs shahi kulfis ….!Wait……Watching Weekday 5pm evening or Saturday Morning cartoons… short commercials, The Tom and Jerry, He-Man, Captain Caveman, Waltron, Walligator, Danger Mouse and Pink Panther. Staying up late for Night Rider, Air Wolf, golden monkeys or Power of Methew Star.Watching nice Urdu Plays like Un Kahi, Tanhaiyaan, Sunehray Din, Aangan Tera, Dhoop Kinaray ….!When around the corner seemed far away, and going into down town or Liberty Market seemed like going somewhere.A million mosquito bites, wasp and bee stings.Sticky fingers.Walking to school, no matter what the weather.Running till you were out of breath. Ringing doorbells for no reason. The old ill-kept house down the street being haunted.Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt. Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights. Climbing trees, building igloos Ice Lolies out of tiny amounts of snow.Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for the giggles.Being tired from playing…Remember that?The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team or your mom showing up at school to pick u up and kissing u infront of your friends.Water balloons were the ultimate weapon.I’m not finished just yet…Remember when…You knew everyone in your street - and so did your parents!It wasn’t odd to have two or three “best” friends.You didn’t sleep a wink on EiD Chaand Raat.When 100 Rs. was more than decent pocket money.When you’d get both a coke and a slims for 5 Rs.When nearly everyone’s mum was at home when the kids got there from School.When dad was better than superman!When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at real restaurant with your parents.When being sent to the head’s office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home.Basically, we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn’t because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat!And some of us are still afraid of them!!!Didn’t that feel good?Just to go back and say, Yeah, I remember that!Remember when….Decisions were made by going “eeny- meeny-miney-mo.”“Race issue” meant arguing about who ran the fastest.Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in “Monopoly”.The worst thing you could catch from other person was germs, and the worst thing in your day was having to sit next to opposite sex.Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a catapult.Nobody was prettier than your Mum.Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable aspirin.Ice cream was considered a basic food group.Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.Tooth was saved under your pillow for the Tooth Fairy to reward you with a rupee for it.Abilities were discovered because of a “double-dare”.Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors.When did life become SO complicated!!!Whatever happened to times when having rubbers and pencils made us feel rich!If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED!

-jee, home garden was the one that involved stairs-i used to play monopoly alot-super crisp + frost for rs 5 eachand those mitchelles toffee 4 for rs 1..-remember that candy..fruity rectangulars ones-NICE biscuits--yumm-and oo remember the dentonic and chocochum adds, and the rafaan pudding one :D

oye han I downloaded modern monopoly and its fit and good thing is that u can play with computers as well as humans and has really kool graphics....anyone needing it lemme know its only 16mb (cracked ;))

Supersoft used to be the best chewing gum. Came with a tattoo too. And non-sticky type. I learned to make bubbles with it :)

Well... actually the fountain pens were made compulsory in class 5 so I had to use them. The thing about fountain pens was that I was very conscious of ink-stains on hands. Always carried a truckload of tissues in my pencil case (anybody remember those cool double-sided ones with magnets?) and took special care with refills.

Ballpoints were to fountain pens as fountain pens were to pencils. Formers being widely popular yet horribly bad in practice compared to latters.

I stuck to fountain pens because there was no compulsion on using ball-points.

And you know what, I changed to the good old pencil/rubber/sharpener (shoppner?) combination in the 5th semester and since then been using them. Only exception being mids and sessionals where pencils aren't allowed anyway. It feels so great (rich :)) words can't describe.

I too played crystal maze at home. Once I made up the room (mystery type) and didn't hide the 'crystal' very well. So my brother enters the room sees the crystal and comes out in 10 seconds :p.

About that kish thing. That's kind of embarrassing :p

Among the programs the 'Perfect Strangers' was also good.

In music nothing could come even close to Dil Dil Pakistan. And everytime it was aired everybody in the house would gather around the TV.

maggie noodles!!!!!!!!!!! created so much hypesuper mario from super nintento is my favourite video game to date..used to play for hoursDOS par i remember playing prince of persia..perhaps the first words i ever typed were cd:\games\run:Datari par there was this figher aeroplane game..used to love it

i remember the candy you're talking about Syra...it used to come in 2 flavours...strawberry and orange...had a silver wrapper with strawberries / oranges on it...depending on the flavour...and it used to be yummmmmmmmmmyyyyyy... :)

i hated those pink copies too....they were the worst part...cudnt even see wat was written on it!!!!

ali--- i need tht computer monopoly...one of my favourites too.....actually was the only game my siblings used to play wid me!!! :D

there were those creamy chocolate and vanilla packets...which we ate wid small flat spoons....dont know the name.....but was very yummy...and those lil footballs in canteen......whihc were suppose to b chocolates.....yummm......

columbo,murder she wrote on ptv saturday nites :)and then they started showing x-fileslater star plus par: the wonder yrz,doogie house,the lost world and bara bara bara Batmaaaaan! :)i think enid blyton's famous five and secret seven and roald dalh's charlie and the choc factory, the big etc were famous with the kids of 90'sand o sweet valley series--hehe--never read those though